Know right from wrong
IT IS amazing how so many excuses can be made when you are caught in the act of doing something you shouldn’t be doing. I’m sure most of you remember the infamous words uttered by our erstwhile Protea’s captain, Hansie Cronje all those years ago. “The devil made me do it.”
I have sat through numerous court cases and I just want to run into the hills and never come back again when it gets to the time of mitigating circumstances.
If my job didn’t force me to sit through it, trust me I wouldn’t. If I could be a judge for just one day and I could do whatever I wanted to, all I can say is beware those in my courtroom at that very moment. My proceedings would look something like Opening statements, questioning of the witnesses, expert witnesses and then the accused. We would then go on to closing arguments and then straight into the verdict. Once I have delivered the verdict, I would then go straight into sentencing and all of this would be done in a matter of three days at the very most. By going this route I think I would be the darling of the taxpayers. Short and sweet.
I will definitely not waste anybody’s time with extenuating and mitigating arguments. For what?
If the judicial system found you guilty of the crime you committed then take the punishment that comes with it.
The reason I would go this route is that I just fail to understand that anybody can blame external forces for their actions. Nobody told Nicholas Ninow to take drugs – definitely not that little girl who has to live with the scars for the rest of her life.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just naive … I don’t know … but I believe that everyone has an inbuilt sense of what is right and wrong, what will influence my behaviour. This is an extremely difficult one for me to comprehend.
You make decisions – you live with them. Nobody told Ninow to go on a drug binge. Nobody held a gun to his head or forced the pills down his throat. Then he has the audacity to stand in court and say, “The drugs made me do it.”
And because ‘the drugs made me do it, I shouldn’t be harshly punished’. Oh woe is me ....
You may not have thought your actions through properly when you popped your first pill. It was all about me … the euphoria I would get … that feeling I would get to just escape my reality …
What about that little girl? She
Zille’s victory against the other three contenders, including Maimane’s ally Athol Trollip, was viewed as having left the party leader’s political career hanging in the balance as she was close to those who wanted him out.
Zille, who enjoyed support from the party’s traditional support base, had openly questioned the policy direction of the DA under Maimane, saying she was forced to run for the post because the party was moving away from its liberal values.
DA federal council spokesperson Refiloe Ntsekhe said the party’s top brass resolved against Maimane’s removal. “Maimane will lead the DA until somebody decides to step up to the game and run against him at federal congress. He has been supported. We still believe in him. He will lead this organisation until the congress takes place in 2020,” Nsekhe said.
While Maimane and the leadership of the DA refused to reveal the specifics of how delegates appraised his leadership, he indicated that his availability at the next congress could depend on the success of his vision for the party at its upcoming policy conference.
“I must deal with this policy conference because the policy conference is coming up now and I actually want our values and our principles to be given more life so that we can make a compelling offer to all South Africans. If that vision finds expression there, then you can lead,” Maimane said.
Speaking alongside Zille, Maimane defended the party’s current policy posture amid the accusation that he and his leadership collective had allowed race-based policies into the party, despite the DA being non-racial.
He said the party had no choice but to deal with the issue of justice and the legacy of apartheid as it “was a systemic crime against black South Africans”.
“I have certainly never shied away from the fact that this is the DA I want to see. I think it ought to be a DA that sets itself on a non-racial future, it focuses on an economy that is inclusive and deals with the question of justice,” he said.
Zille repeatedly remarked: “I will stay in my lane.”
In what could be seen as a swipe at Maimane and his insistence on his vision, Zille however pointed out that the DA was not an autocratic organisation and that its leaders were not autonomous beings who dictated the direction of the party.
“No leader in the DA gets up and decides what the values, the visions and the plans of the organisation are. If you read the first chapter of our constitution, all those things are very clear,” she said.
Unisa political expert Professor Somadoda Fikeni said Zille’s return was likely to set in motion Maimane’s isolation within the party.
“He might even be rendered insignificant even when he is still in power. Being the chair of the federal council which deals with the core administrative part, Zille may actually crisscross the country under the guise of trying to revive the DA’S administrative systems, only to campaign for the next leadership that will suit her,” Fikeni said. was also ‘escaping her reality’ by having innocent fun. But it was just about you …
I had an interesting conversation with somebody just after the incident happened. They told me that if there were more drug rehabilitation centres in South Africa something like this would not have happened. Yes, I totally agree with you. The country has very few drug rehabilitation centres. But is it up to government to take responsibility for the choices you and I make?
Government isn’t forcing you to take that first puff or pop that first pill. That is your choice and you have to live with the consequences of your choices.
I know a lot of people are pointing fingers at me and saying I don’t know the personal circumstances of these people. You are right, I don’t. But what I do know that despite your circumstances, you can still make the right choices.
There have been numerous circumstances where gangsters have turned their lives around. Drug addicts who have cleaned up and are productive members of society.
We all know the difference between right and wrong – and it’s not just me.